Who crates and rotates?

Michiyo-Fir

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#1
What does your crate and rotate schedule look like if you do?

Why do you do it? How?

I don't currently have that issue but I'm just wondering if I did in the future, what it could potentially look like.

Do you find it difficult to manage? Or feel that it's difficult to give enough attention to each dog?
 

Dekka

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#2
We do, kinda, right now. We have done so more in the past. Its not really a big deal. At the moment Sport wants to eat Kaiden (poor Kaiden he is so inoffensive and is not a fighter) so Kaiden is either crated when Sport is loose, or Sport is loose in Darien's room or out in the dog yard when Kaiden is loose. As Darien likes to spend time playing video games it works out pretty well.
 
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#3
We crate and rotate. It IS time consuming, and you have to be sure each dog gets attention and "out" time. We have two girls, littermates, we brought back from Holland with us last summer, with the hope one will end up as a nice breeding female. They would like to kill each other, and to be fair to them and their quality of life, one will probably end up being placed/sold in the next few months. :(

The boys are easier to rotate, they don't have the overt hostility the girls do.

What is difficult is, being out running errands and remembering you need to go home and swap dogs. We also have really nice outdoor kennel runs, so everyone CAN go outside. But I'm beyond paranoid, and don't like leaving dogs out while I am gone running errands.
 

Dogs6

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#4
We do. Atm we're keeping Diesel seperated from Aura, Fudge, Taz and Scamp. Aura because of her never ending lameness and the boys because he annoys them. Aura's also seperated from Tika because Tika doesn't like her.

What usually happens is that Aura is loose in the house and Tika and Diesel are in the dog pen. When they come in Aura is either crated or locked in the kitchen with Fudge. The other boys are either locked in my room or loose and watched closely (they're not as bad as Fudge but they still don't like Diesel. At night and when nobody's at home Aura and Diesel are both crated, the boys are locked in my room and Tika and Ozzy have free roam of the house.
 

momto8

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#5
We crated and rotated for the past 6 months, Courtney and Lilly hate each other and Courtney will try and kill Lilly :( It was very time consuming and neither one of them like it at all :(
Lilly went to live with my mom this past week and we have completely different dogs now, in a good way. Lilly is happy to rule the shih tzu's and Courtney is very happy to no longer have to be crated anymore.
 

Dekka

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#6
I am a bit confused as to why its time consuming (I have heard this more than once in this thread) While atm I only have two that can't go out together, in the past I have had multiple combinations that were bad..

I have never found it takes any noticable amount of time to let dogs in crates and then open another door. So what are you doing that takes up so much time?
 

momto8

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#7
I am a bit confused as to why its time consuming (I have heard this more than once in this thread) While atm I only have two that can't go out together, in the past I have had multiple combinations that were bad..

I have never found it takes any noticable amount of time to let dogs in crates and then open another door. So what are you doing that takes up so much time?
Maybe for us it just always seemed so because of a high stress level, always having worry that one is not getting enough attention or that a slip up could happen.
 

*blackrose

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#8
We've had to "crate and rotate", but it was more like just diving the house up into two sections and making sure the dogs weren't out in the yard at the same time. Either way, it is enough of a pain as is and I can't imagine doing it where we literally had to crate and rotate. Luckily, at the moment the two inhospitable parties are Rose and Chloe and since I am moving out in August, I nor my mom will have to deal with it any more. (Hopefully. I'm hoping we won't have an issue crop up with Cynder and Chloe since they'll be spending more time together. Haven't had an issue yet and they actually played with one another the other night, so *fingers crossed*.)
 
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#9
Making sure each dog has individual attention can be time consuming. So can running home because someone has been in a crate a couple of hours and you need to switch. Juggling "let in" and "let out" so certain dogs don't come in contact with each other takes more time than just opening up a door and letting everyone in or out. Of having, say, a doggie door.
 

Dekka

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#10
but don't you make sure all dogs get enough attention anyway? I don't see that being different if they are all loose or only a few. IMO dogs need some one on one attention.

I have had dogs taht would fight and latch on though crates but not for years. Now for me it is a simple as saying "kaiden in your house' and closing the door and opening Dariens bed room door.

Maybe because its how I have lived with multiple dogs all along (go terriers?) I just don't find it a big deal. I did find it very stressful to begin with, but as I did it more it just became normal.

Then again I don't rush home to let one dog out. They are pretty much all crated when I am gone.
 

Laurelin

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#11
i know if I had to crate and rotate with my dogs, they wouldn't get nearly enough time and attention. I have a very busy schedule and so most of the doggie stuff we do, we do together. If they started trying to kill each other I don't think it would work out.
 

Dekka

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#12
i know if I had to crate and rotate with my dogs, they wouldn't get nearly enough time and attention. I have a very busy schedule and so most of the doggie stuff we do, we do together. If they started trying to kill each other I don't think it would work out.
You are also one person. Its much easier when there is a family of people looking after and spending time with the dogs. I don't think it would work here nearly so well if I had to look after Sport and Kaiden. But Darien looks to Sports needs and I look after Kaiden. It works well because I am not going it alone.
 
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#13
Then again I don't rush home to let one dog out. They are pretty much all crated when I am gone.
I have time limits on what I consider acceptable time waiting in a crate for me to be gone. It is my personal preference. So when you're 45 minutes from town to begin with, yes, sometimes I cut things short to come home and let dogs out, especially puppies! I also have horses that eat three times a day as well.

I spend all day with my dogs. Our sport is time consuming and intense. Training, tracking, conditioning, playing, and hanging out time too. Repeat x2 for my dogs, and my husband x2 for his dogs. Takes a bit of time everyday. ;)
 

SaraB

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#14
I have time limits on what I consider acceptable time waiting in a crate for me to be gone. It is my personal preference. So when you're 45 minutes from town to begin with, yes, sometimes I cut things short to come home and let dogs out, especially puppies! I also have horses that eat three times a day as well.

I spend all day with my dogs. Our sport is time consuming and intense. Training, tracking, conditioning, playing, and hanging out time too. Repeat x2 for my dogs, and my husband x2 for his dogs. Takes a bit of time everyday. ;)
This. I had to crate and rotate my two danes and it was horribly time consuming even with my husband's help. Even though I've always walked/trained dogs separately, it's just the general out and about time that is consuming especially when both dogs needed to be crated when left alone anyways. If I had 3 hours of downtime at home between teaching and working, each dog only had 1.5 hours of time out of their crate (not counting walks and what not). To me, that wasn't fair and the dogs began to show stress behaviors as well. Eventually, Titan was rehomed and it has worked out wonderfully for all involved.
 

Toller_08

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#15
I don't know if I could crate and rotate. I guess if I had to, I could, but having dogs that all get along and can be out together is much more enjoyable. I can't envision it happening, but if Keira and Dance suddenly didn't get along I know I could not part with either of them unless things were dire and I absolutely had to. And so we'd have to seperate and rotate them somehow, even if it wasn't ideal.
 

Finkie_Mom

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#16
I have to crate and rotate when Bubbles comes in to heat, and it's not too bad (though it's only for a month at a time...). I do everything for my guys (husband doesn't help, but that's the understanding we have), but my schedule is also so flexible that I'm able to be home for good chunks of time throughout the day. But I can also have Kimma out with either Pen or Bubbles so that helps, too, as Kimma is the most time-consuming of all three (she's a hyper crazy thing).

I may end up with another male at some point, and I do hope that Pen gets along with him. Otherwise I will have to crate/rotate permanently (Pen was attacked at a show a while back, and even though he's made great strides, he's still a bit weird with other dogs, mostly males). But I will cross that bridge when/if I come to it :)
 

AdrianneIsabel

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#17
We do a modified c&r. When anything exciting is happening we separate everyone but the mals. If food is present we separate by breeds. If we're just hanging out they're all loose. If we leave the room at all they're separated by gender.

My males do not like each other, they tolerate but they're not trustworthy. My females don't care at all.

I'm in the potential market for a female Malinois in the next few months..... ;D
 

PWCorgi

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#18
We do a modified c&r. When anything exciting is happening we separate everyone but the mals. If food is present we separate by breeds. If we're just hanging out they're all loose. If we leave the room at all they're separated by gender.

My males do not like each other, they tolerate but they're not trustworthy. My females don't care at all.

I'm in the potential market for a female Malinois in the next few months..... ;D
Puppy??? Puppy puppy??
 

Teal

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#19
I presently don't have to crate and rotate, but I did it for years. I had two bitches that couldn't be together, and I had a male who wanted to kill my other males.

Some people are just not cut out for it. Personally, I never found it cumbersome/time consuming/etc. even though I never had any help. I actually rather like the complexity of it... who can go out with who, how to modify that if a bitch is in season, etc. it makes things more interesting! Though I can definitely understand those who just want their dogs to be there and not have to worry about it lol
 

MafiaPrincess

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#20
I don't crate and rotate at home. I do when we join Dekka's pack. I don't find it problematic or time consuming.. It helps that there is more than one person when we are there, so every dog gets enough attention. Also the crates are near her computer, so locked up dogs are getting attention too.
 

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